Grotesqueries - A Tribute to the Tales of L A Lewis

 

In the past year I have been working with Jonas Ploeger of Zagava Books on an anthology of stories inspired by the visions of Leslie Allin Lewis (1899-1961).

I am fairly certain I encountered Lewis’ work first through the keen advocacy of Richard Dalby, who had discovered these rare and unusual weird tales, and then traced and befriended Lewis’ widow. She gave him important details of Lewis’ troubled life and asked Richard to act as his literary executor.

I eventually found a very tatty and faded copy of his one book, Tales of the Grotesque (1934), which was all the more precious for being in such a well-worn condition, a battered survivor.

His 'The Tower of Moab', about the demon-haunted headquarters of a strange sect, is now recognised as a classic, and it inspired David Tibet’s Current 93 song ‘Lucifer Over London’. I have written elsewhere on this blog about the probable inspiration for the Tower in the edifice erected by the Jezreelites in Gillingham.

But Lewis also wrote other powerful stories, some reflecting his wartime experiences and others his strong sense of other dimensions, cosmic entities and malevolent powers. The original stories in Grotesqueries – A Tribute to TheTales of L A Lewis respond to the full range of his work.

The contributors are: Reggie Oliver, Mark Samuels, Rosalie Parker, Rebecca Lloyd, John Howard, Jane Jakeman, Ron Weighell, D P Watt, R B Russell, Jonathan Wood, Caroline Tyrrell, Colin Insole, and Mark Valentine.

The book will be available in paperback, numbered hardback and very limited artist’s edition. 

(Mark Valentine)